


Honey

by Dressed_In_Darkness



Series: Chasing Summer [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Chasing Summer, Fluff and Angst, M/M, One Shot, POV First Person, POV Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Poetic, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 21:29:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10839810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dressed_In_Darkness/pseuds/Dressed_In_Darkness
Summary: One shot set in the Chasing Summer universe





	Honey

**Author's Note:**

> Wow! It's been so long since I've written my _Chasing Summer_ babes. I've missed them so much, and writing this made me very happy. Reconnecting with them was such a treat. I hope those who've read _Chasing Summer_ enjoy this little side story.  <3

The sound of the smoke detector woke me at seven in the morning. When I heard a pan crashing into the sink soon after, I smiled into my pillow. Eren could paint food exactly as he saw it, but when it came to cooking, he left something to be desired. Half the time he couldn’t even make toast without burning it. It was one of the many qualities of his that I found frustratingly cute. It made me want to eat him, or kiss him until he knew no amount of burnt food could make me love him any less.  

     With our duvet wrapped around my shoulders, I climbed out of bed and followed the smell into the kitchen. Eren stood by the stove in nothing but a pair of black boxers and a white apron. The fact that I didn’t collapse onto my knees right then and there was a miracle. That view could save lives. As it was, it rendered me speechless long enough for him to turn around and notice me gawking at him. But all he did was hold out a frying pan to show me he’d scrambled eggs into black chunks of charcoal that stuck to the bottom of the pan.

     Well, that was definitely ruined. That would be the second one this month.

     “A plus for trying,” I said.

     He groaned, miserable. “I killed the eggs.”

     “May they rest in peace.”

     Another groan, followed by, “Levi.”

     I took the frying pan out of his hand and dumped it into the sink. “We have tons of fruit stashed in the fridge. I’ll whip up some fruit salads.” The pout on his face deepened. He wanted to make something for us too. “And you can boil us some eggs.”

     “I can boil eggs,” he said straight after with a smile. He looked so proud of himself.

     “Stop with the smile. It’s blinding me.”

     “What?”

     I stepped up to him and noticed a fresh spatter of sun freckles above his collarbone. They were a shade darker than his skin. “How many times do I have to tell you that you’re too cute for your own good?” I explained as I kissed all the spots that weren’t covered by the apron. “When you look at me with that smile of yours, all I want to do is kiss you.”

     “Then kiss me.”

     Sunlight filtered into the kitchen from a window above the sink. We’d moved to Portland a little over a month ago, but I still couldn’t get used to seeing the sun at this hour. I did enjoy the wonderful things it had done to Eren’s skin, though. His tan had deepened to a rather delicious shade of bronze. His hair, which had grown longer since we’d left Shiganshina, had also lightened in color. He was so beautiful. He could give Adonis a run for his money as Aphrodite’s favorite. There was no doubt about that in my mind.

     “What are you thinking about?” Eren asked, leaning in.

     I threw the duvet over his shoulders. We huddled closer together. “I’m thinking that Adonis has nothing on you.”

     “Adonis? Wasn’t he the god of beauty and desire in Greek mythology?”

     “Mhm.”

     He chuckled. “You think I’m more beautiful than a god?”

     “Don’t question me on this, okay? Just look at you.” I gestured to his warm, golden skin. He looked down at where I pointed, then at my face. The deep green of his eyes made my stomach leap into my throat. “You’re gorgeous, and now I’m not even thinking about breakfast. See what you did?”

     “What are you thinking about?” he asked while he slid his fingers beneath the band of my boxers.

     “You damn well know.”

     He pressed his mouth to my neck, his warm breath clouding over my skin when he said, “Mm, what about breakfast?”

     “It can wait. Unless you don’t want it to wait.”

     “ _Eres tan ciego, lindo._ Of course it can wait. Everything can wait.”

     I untied the straps of his apron before tossing it aside. His boxers were next. “I still don’t understand Spanish.”

     “I know, _mon amour_.”

     “I speak some of your language, though.”

     He wrapped his leg around my waist. “Oh? Speak it to me, then.”

     “‘She wore her scars,’” I said, quoting a poem I’d read just yesterday in one of the many books he kept in his studio. I touched the scar that ran along his chest. The one that served as a reminder of what he had been through not so long ago. “‘He made her comfortable and removed them one by one. He kissed her naked soul and tattooed a promise on her skin.’”

     Eren grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips. “Make love to me.”

     I picked him up and felt his slender legs wrap around my waist. Then, with my fingers mapping out the column of his spine, I took him into our bedroom. The world slipped away as our bodies came together, as it always did when I was with him.

     As it always would, until time folded in on itself.

 

(x)

 

After breakfast, we wandered out of our small apartment into the sun-bleached city of Portland. We walked together down the busy streets crowded with people. The only times Eren let go of my hand was when he took a picture of something he found worth keeping in a photograph. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Every time I caught a glimpse of his smile, the laugh lines on his face becoming prominent, I remembered how I once thought this would never be possible. Being here with him felt like a dream. But this was no dream. This was his second chance and we never took a second of it for granted.  

     “Look,” he said, pointing to an ugly thrift store across the road. “Let’s check it out.”

     Before I could add any type of commentary, he dragged me toward it without any regard for anyone in our way. We shuffled inside the old building. The bell dinged overhead and announced our entrance. It smelled like stale flowers, worn clothing, and sun warmed books in here. I already knew Eren loved it.

     “Looking for something in particular?” I asked.

     He bit his bottom lip, excited, and shook his head, eyes scanning over the spines of books that had been stacked on a timeworn chair. He slid his index finger down each of them. When he reached the middle, he pulled out a paperback and flipped through the pages. A cloud of dust greeted him, but he only smiled like this was a small treasure.

     Needing to touch him somehow, I pressed my hand to the back of his neck, softly. His skin was warm against mine.

     “I’m getting this,” he said.    

     “Do you even know what it’s about?”

     “Not-uh. Doesn’t matter, though, because I’m going to use the pages to fold paper cranes.”

     “Get as many as you need.”

     He turned to me. “I just need the one. Let’s look around some more.”

     In one of the back rooms, there were rows of bins filled with random junk people no longer wanted. Uninterested, Eren walked passed them toward a shelf that held various film cameras. Most of them looked broken, or too old to function, but he liked one enough to pick it up. He blew the dust off it and examined it under the faulty lights overhead.

     “Going to add it to your collection?” I asked.

     “It’s pretty old. I don’t know if it’ll work anymore.”

     I looked at the price tag. “It’s only four bucks. Get it. We can test it out at home.”

     “Mkay.” He pecked me on the cheek.

     I grunted, a form of communication only Eren understood. He laughed before he pressed his lips to mine. His mouth tasted hot and sweet from the fruit he’d eaten this morning. I didn’t care if there were any onlookers, I deepened the kiss and buried my fingers in his hair. His response to that was to press me back against the shelves. We stumbled over each other in our hurry, knocking stuff over in the process. We smiled and laughed, hands clumsy as we touched one another, and this was happiness. All the sadness we experienced had been worth it for these moments. And we still had so many moments to live, so many memories to make. My wish had really come true.

     “I love you so much, Eren,” I said when our lips broke apart.

     He leaned his forehead on mine, breathing fast. “Say it again.”

     “I love you.”

     “I love you, too, Levi. More and more every day.” He touched my dimple. “Remember, in the next life, I’m living in here. Free of charge.”

     “What are you going to live off of? Leftover crumbs?”

     “Um, yes. I’ll crawl out like a little ant and feast on any goodies you’ve forgotten about on the corner of your mouth.”

     “I’ll leave some there just for you. All your favorites.”

     “As I expect you to,” he said. Then he looked down. “We knocked over one of the cameras. It’s broken.”

     I glanced down at it. The price tag said it was a dollar. “A dollar well spent.”

     As Eren knelt to clean up the broken pieces scattered on the floor, my cell phone vibrated in my back pocket. I hated carrying it around. Modern technology hadn’t been a thing back in Shiganshina, so I wasn’t used to it yet, but I kept it on me for Jean and Petra. They called whenever they got a chance to.

     “Hello?” I answered.

     A series of loud moans erupted in my ear. I knew who it was right away.

     “Goddamnit, Jean,” I muttered. “I think you blew out my eardrum.”

     He laughed. “Some people would pay good money to hear those moans, baby. You should consider yourself lucky. I’m just bestowing them upon you for free, out of the goodness of my heart.”

     “Yeah, I’m real lucky. I’m counting my blessings as we speak.”

     “You better be. But what are you doing? You’re not humping Eren are you? Petra wants to video call you guys. She misses your ugly faces. I might miss them, too.”

     “We’re at a thrift store right now, but we should be home in an hour. We can do it then.”

     Eren stood up and mouthed, “Jean?”

     I nodded.

     “Okay, we’ll do it in an hour,” Jean said. “That gives you enough time to prepare yourselves. You’ve probably forgotten how incredibly handsome I am. It might blow you away, or stun you into silence.”

     “You’re so full of shit.”

     “You can’t accept the truth, I know.”

     “I’m hanging up on you,” I threatened, even though hearing his voice made me feel at home. I missed him and Petra more than I could explain. I wanted to crawl into the phone with Eren and somehow make it back to Shiganshina in the blink of an eye, so we could spend the rest of the afternoon with the family we left behind.  

     “What’s that? You’re jealous? How typical.”

     “Bye. This is me exiting this conversation,” I said, handing Eren the phone, who picked up where I’d left off.

     I hadn’t seen Jean and Petra in a month. It felt like a million years. Even though I loved living out here with Eren, the urge to visit home never left me. I couldn’t wait until they finished high school, packed their bags, and moved here to Portland. Until then, something would always be missing.

     “You look sad,” Eren said, slipping my phone back into my pocket. His hand lingered in my pants.

     “I just—I miss them a lot.”

     “I know you do. So do I. Maybe we can go and visit them soon.”

     I leaned my head on his shoulder. He ran his fingers through my hair, comforting me. “I’ll pick up some extra shifts this week, try to save up some money,” I told him.

     “I could get a job. Help you out.”

     “Nope, not allowed. It’s against the official Ackerman rules. You have to focus on school for another three months. We can’t have you getting distracted.” I yelped in surprise when he bit into my shoulder. He soothed the ache with gentle strokes of his tongue. I tilted my head to the side and he hummed in appreciation. “Your libido is going to get us thrown out of a thrift shop. I swear you’re turning into an exhibitionist. Just last week we did it in a car parked out in front of a church. A church, Eren. You have no shame.”

     “None whatsoever,” he agreed. He slid his hands beneath the back of my shirt, fingertips gliding over the curve of my spine. I arched into him. “Are you complaining?”

     “Absolutely not.”

     He chuckled. “Good, because I can never get enough of you. ‘And every glittering kiss and every touch of flesh is another shard of heart you’ll never see again.’”

     “You have my heart,” I told him.

     “And you have mine.”

     I don’t know how far we would have taken it if we hadn’t heard someone clear their throat several times. I flung myself back at the sound, but Eren just looped his finger through one of the belt loops on my jeans. When I turned my head, I spotted an older woman standing not too far from us. She wasn’t wearing a name tag, which meant she didn’t work here. I considered that a gift from the heavens above. Maybe we wouldn’t get tossed out, after all.

     “Excuse us,” I said, because I didn’t know what else could be said in this situation. My hand was literally cupping Eren’s ass.

Eren, who flashed her a brilliant smile, said, “We were just leaving.”

     He pulled me out of the room, interlacing our fingers, and we busted out laughing as we jogged through aisles to get to the front of the store. We were almost out the door when I remembered Eren had a book and camera in his possession that he hadn’t paid for. I couldn’t care less about escaping with some stolen goods, but he would have a heart attack once he realized what he’d done.

     “The camera,” I blurted, signaling to his hand. It was empty.

     “Crap, I left it. The voyeur distracted me.”

     “The voyeur? You were practically pulling down my pants. In public!”

     “So? That doesn’t mean she had to watch. She could’ve walked passed us and minded her own business.”

     I gaped at him. “You’re ridiculous. There’s no way I’m going back there.”

     “Levi,” he whined.

     “I swear to god, Eren. Don’t do the face. Don’t you dare.”

     He did the face, jutting out his bottom lip and pulling his eyebrows together...

     Fuck. It was too cute! I couldn’t handle it.

     “Damn you,” I said, leading him back toward the room.

     The woman was down on her knees, rummaging through bins. While her back was turned to us, Eren raced to the shelf. He snatched the camera up and held it over his head for me to see. I waved him over.

     “Hurry,” I mouthed.

     Just as Eren reached me, the woman turned around. She narrowed her eyes at us. Eren hollered, “Victory!”

     I chose that moment to glance at him. He looked so happy, burning bright in this drabby thrift store. It took me aback. He had changed so much since he’d been sick. There were no dark circles beneath his eyes, no nasal cannula wrapped around the backs of his ears, no oxygen tank, no wheelchair—nothing to hold him back. He was here with me, and he was alive and healthy. We weren’t living on a time limit anymore. Endless days stretched out in front of us. We had defied the rules of time and broken out of our hourglass. The thread that held us together held strong.

     “Are you about to cry?” he asked.

     “I might be.”

     “Why?” He took my face between his hands and kissed every inch of it. “Tell me why when we’re so happy.”

     “That is why. I didn’t think I would have these days with you.”

     “Oh, _mon amour_ , but you do. We have days and months and years to spend together. Remember that quote you told me this morning. ‘He kissed her naked soul and tattooed a promise on her skin.’? That day on the bridge, you promised me we would pretend that our time is eternal.” He ran his finger over the infinity knot ring he wore. “We don’t have to pretend anymore. Our love got us through the bad times, but we’ve finally reached the good times. We’re here, living them.”

     I nodded. “I know, and it feels like a dream.”

     He wrapped his arms around me. He smelled like sugared honey and crushed tangerines. I sagged against him.

     “You’ve always felt like a dream to me, Levi.”

 

(x)

 

It was almost midnight and Eren still hadn’t come to bed. Whenever he was working on a painting, he lost track of time and let the hours slip by unnoticed. Normally I wouldn’t disturb him, but tonight I couldn’t keep still. So, arming myself with a mug of hot chocolate and brown sugar oatmeal bars, I stepped into his studio. There were no lights on. Dozens of candles lit the small space in flickering shades of yellow. Eren sat on the floor, a canvas board laid out in front of him. He didn’t move.

     “I brought you a snack,” I said in hopes of nabbing his attention.

     He almost seemed to shrink the closer I got to him. Then I saw it. The familiar curve of a nasal cannula, wrapped around his ears and leading to an oxygen tank that he’d tucked beneath his work table. I froze at the sight of it, my heart pounding hard in my chest. I almost dropped the mug. It took all the strength I possessed to set it down on a stool near his easel.

     “E-Eren?”

     He turned his head. His face was wet with tears. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

     “I don’t understand. Why—Why are you wearing that?”

     “I felt something here.” He pointed to his chest. “It was just a ghost of the pain I used to feel, but I got so scared. Levi, I got so scared. I didn’t know what else to do.”

     I collapsed onto my knees and pulled him onto my lap. He clung onto me. “You’re okay,” I told him, told myself. “You’re fine now. That’s in the past. Grisha told us that you could experience some pain, but that it’s all in your head. It’s not real.” I held him tighter. “Nothing’s wrong. I won’t let anything be wrong.”

     He leaned back, and I cleaned his cheeks with my T-shirt. Seeing him with a cannula on made my heart ache. It brought a memory to mind, one of him curled up in his old bed back in Shiganshina. IPF had taken so much from him then. He had lost enough weight to make all his bones stick out against his skin. But even like that, with the illness consuming him, he was the most beautiful thing to me. He was every night star compacted into one, a wondrous galaxy hidden in a remote town, and when he fell in love with me, bright patches of color bled into my skin and illuminated me from the inside out.

     I wouldn’t let this drag him down. Not after everything he went through.

     I grabbed the tube at either side of his face. He put his hands over mine to stop me. “Hey, it’s okay. Let me do this,” I said. “It’s over now. You beat it.”

     Letting out a shaky breath, Eren nodded and put his hands in his lap. I unwound the cannula from the backs of his ears and pulled it away from his face. Then I set it off to the side, away from view.

     “Okay?” I asked.

     After a few moments passed with him taking steady breaths, he said, “Okay.” He smiled, but it looked wrong. “I guess I overreacted.”

     “No. You were scared, Eren. You reacted the only way you could.”      

     “I didn’t want you to see me like that. Not ever again and—”

     “Shh. You don’t have to hide from me. I’m here, through the good and the bad.”

     “I know.”

     To distract him, I picked up the book we’d bought at the thrift store and leafed through it. I tore out two pages from the back, one for him and one for me. I handed him his page. When I started to fold mine, he mirrored the movements. It took us no time at all to create two very lopsided paper cranes. They hadn’t come out quite right since the paper wasn’t square.

     “They’re very ugly,” he said, fondly.

     “One wing is longer than the other one on mine, but he’s owning it.”

     “Mine has a crooked beak. Will yours still kiss it?”

     “Every damn day,” I said.

     Eren grinned from ear to ear. “Should we hang them up in here?”      

     “Yes, but let’s write something on them first. Do you have gold paint?”

     He pulled out a storage basket from under his table. He rifled through it until he found what he was looking for. “Hand me that palette behind you.”

     I handed it to him and he squeezed a dab of gold paint onto it. There were various paintbrushes scattered around the room. I picked one up near my foot and dipped it in paint. Then, holding my paper crane in one hand and the brush in the other, I wrote _happiness_ on one wing. Eren followed my example, writing _love_ on the opposite wing of his crane in his all too familiar slanted handwriting.

     “Now we hang them!” Eren exclaimed, before he started blowing messily on the paint to dry it.

     “Who knew you could be so evil?”

     “Only sometimes. I mean, I’m only stabbing them with a needle. It won’t be so bad.”

     The sewing needle he poked the cranes with was wide enough to leave behind a good-sized hole that he fed white thread through.

     When everything was set, I asked, “Where should we hang them?”

     He stood up, and I followed suit. He made his way over to the bay window. “Here,” he said.

     We pinned them up on the ceiling with tape. They spun on their strings the instant we let go of them. The lettering on their wings reflected the candlelight, throwing back narrow trails of gold. For a while, we stared at them in silence, our hands migrating together until his fingers slid between mine, then Eren walked around the room and blew out all the candles. In the darkness, he laid down on the window seat. I threw myself next to him.

     His hands skittered over my body, searching. The crunch of a wrapper stopped him.

     “My snack?” he asked.

     “Your snack,” I confirmed.

     He dug the oatmeal bar out of my pocket, tearing the wrapper open with his teeth. He broke the bar in half. “I’m willing to share my oatmeal bar with you. If that doesn’t prove how much I love you, I don’t know what will.”

     “I’m convinced. This is true love,” I said.

     Eren all but inhaled his half of the bar. I’d only taken a small bite of mine, which attracted his attention. He whined.

     I held it out to him. “Here, take it before you chew my hand off.”

     After he polished off that piece in record time, he grabbed the throw blanket and we snuggled closer together underneath it. With my arms around him, and the warmth of his body pressed to mine, I couldn’t fight off sleep for much longer. I always felt so safe and secure when I was with him. My summer within reach.

     I was almost asleep when Eren said, “Thank you.”

     “Hm? For what?”

     “For always giving me strength when I need it the most.”

     I kissed him sleepily. “Forever, Eren.”

     “Forever,” he agreed.

     Then we slept.

**Author's Note:**

> They are so cheesy and so incredibly in love. I've forgotten how much they adore each other. They make me so so happy, these two beautiful boys that have been through so much. 
> 
>  
> 
> Quotes by Himanshu Chhabra and Neil Gaiman


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